Latest news with #KarenBuckley
Scottish Sun
09-07-2025
- Scottish Sun
How detectives snared monster nightclub killer… after twisted attempts to cover tracks with bleach & barrel
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IN APRIL 2015, 24-year-old Irish student Karen Buckley was doing what thousands of students across the country do at the weekend. She was out with friends having a few drinks before heading to the Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow, the city where she was at university studying to become an occupational therapist. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 11 Karen Buckley was murdered by Alexander Pacteau after a night out in 2015 Credit: PA:Press Association 11 The 24-year-old Irish student was out with friends when the monster pounced 11 Evil Alexander Pacteau was jailed for life after the shocking murder Credit: PA:Press Association However, hours later she disappeared from the nightclub after telling friends she was going to the toilet. Her jacket was left behind but crucial CCTV showed her talking to a man - now revealed to be loner and fantasist Alexander Pacteau - outside in the early hours of a Sunday morning before heading away from the club. This was the last time she was seen alive. Concerned pals reported her missing and an urgent probe to find her was launched by officers, keen to trace the man she was last seen with. Karen's worried parents flew to Glasgow from their home in Cork and they made an emotional plea for her safe return during a press conference in the days after she vanished. Her mum, Marian, told reporters: "She is our only daughter and we love her dearly. "We just want Karen home safely. We are desperate." Their first major breakthrough came when Karen's handbag was found in the city's Dawsholm Park, while a search was also underway at a flat in the Kelvinside area. At this point in their investigation detectives revealed that they believed Karen had gone back to a flat and spent time there after leaving the nightclub. They also said the man they had been keen to speak to had come forward - but insisted he was not a "suspect" at this stage. Karen Buckley's last moments It's now known that the man was 21-year-old Alexander Pacteau. After leaving the club, for reasons still unclear, Karen got into his car and he drove her to nearby Kelvin Way. Twisted Pacteau parked his motor - a silver Ford Focus - on the street for 12 minutes, during which time he attacked and murdered her by grabbing her neck and clubbing her with a large spanner over the head up to 13 times, leaving its imprint on her head. He fractured her skull and caused a massive bleed to her brain. 11 CCTV footage shows the fiend outside Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow 11 Twisted Pacteau pounced on Karen Buckley in his silver Ford Focus Shockingly, police believe that Karen was killed within twenty minutes of meeting the monster. As the evil reality of his actions set in, Pacteau drove to his flat and left Karen's body in his room before using his phone to look up information on caustic soda on the internet. Desperate to cover his tracks, he set off to B&Q and Poundstretchers where he bought litres of the chemical and masks and gloves. 11 CCTV shows Alexander Pacteau buying caustic soda in a bid to cover his tracks 11 Forensics teams carry out searches outside of Pacteau's flat 11 Officers were hit with an overwhelming smell of bleach when they entered his flat Credit: Handout While his flatmate was out, the monster carried Karen's beaten body into his bathroom and placed her in the bath. The following morning Pacteau disposed of the spanner and bought more cleaning products, asking about how to remove blood from a mattress. By now, the police investigation had stepped up. Specialist police divers, a helicopter crew and search dogs were all involved in the hunt. And, four days on from her disappearance, police made the devastating discovery everyone was hoping to avoid. Dumped in a barrel, locked in a storage unit on a farm a short drive from Glasgow in Milngavie, was the body of 24-year-old Karen. 11 High Craigton Farm, where Karen Buckley's body was found in a barrel Credit: PA:Press Association By now, Pacteau had been arrested and charged with her murder. It was later revealed in court he knew the farm having previously rented a storage unit there. Detectives scoured almost two thousand hours of CCTV footage which showed chilling images of Pacteau the day after the killing driving to various supermarkets and DIY stores in the west end to pick up supplies to cover his tracks, including caustic soda. One shot showed him calmly loading up his basket with the bottles, which he would then use to try to dissolve Karen's body. The scumbag then filled the 220-litre blue plastic barrel with the caustic soda and submerged her body in it. The day after he killed Karen he went to the farm and burned clothing before returning to his flat where he put her body in the barrel he had ordered from a packaging company. He then took the mattress in his car to the farm and burned it along with other items before returning to his flat to collect the barrel which he put in a storage unit at the farm, covering it with a sheet and placing a bike wheel and paper shredder on top. The monster then returned home and within minutes of arriving back police knocked the door of his flat in Dorchester Avenue. Pacteau chillingly answered to the officers: "I was just coming to see you." When he opened the front door, the officers were hit by an overwhelming smell of bleach. Pacteau admitted that Karen had been in his flat. 11 Alexander Pacteau being questioned by detectives Credit: PA:Press Association He also told them that he had got rid of some stuff from his flat and burned it - having panicked when he heard Karen was missing. Two days later police decided they had enough evidence to treat him as a suspect. He was arrested and a few hours later police got a tip-off which led them to the farm where they made the gruesome discovery. A post-mortem examination revealed she had fought for her life. Despite his "elaborate plan" to dispose of Ms Buckley's body, the forensic evidence was damning. Tiny blood spots were found in his car, bedroom and bathroom. He even left a fingerprint inside the barrel used to hide the body. Although he had his car valeted, a police dog also detected a body had been in the boot. Meanwhile, a forensics expert revealed a crucial piece of evidence he missed while he tried to cover his tracks. Professor Lorna Dawson told how some soil which remained on the car's tyres proved crucial in the case. Her analysis of the soil proved the car had been at Dawsholm Park in Glasgow where Karen's handbag was dumped. Analysis of dirt found on Pacteau's boots also showed he had recently been at the farm. Speaking on BBC series Expert Witness, Professor Dawson, head of soil forensics at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, said: "The car was very clean but when we looked underneath it, we were able to recover some material. "When we looked at the car tyres we saw there was a band of soil which had avoided being washed off by the car wash procedure. "We showed that profile was very similar with the turning point at Dawsholm Park. This was quite important because it took that vehicle nearby the bin at the entrance to Dawsholm Park where Karen's handbag was found. "The soil evidence linked him to where Karen was found and to Dawsholm Park." She added: "I'm very proud that we were able to help in this particular case. "The physical evidence of the soil and the vegetation had done its job because it had helped Pacteau admit to killing Karen." Faced with the damning forensic evidence, Pacteau appeared at the High Court in Glasgow in August that year and admitted a charge of murdering Karen. Detectives revealed he had seemed to 'enjoy' being grilled by them over the chilling crime. The remorseless fiend eventually pled guilty to murdering Karen, who had been studying occupational therapy at the city's Caledonian Uni. Caging him at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lady Rae said: 'To you, she was a complete stranger who appears, tragically, to have accepted a lift in your car. 'In a matter of minutes, for some unknown and inexplicable reason, you destroyed her young life.' We told how Karen's dad John Buckley, then 62, from Mourneabbey, County Cork, called Pacteau a 'truly evil coward'. 11 Karen Buckley's family dad John, and mum Marian after he admitted the heinous crime Credit: Alan MacGregor Ewing - The Sun Glasgow It transpired he had arrived at the club with seven pals around the same time as Karen and her pals. In Glasgow - the city the Irish student had made her temporary home - the outpouring of grief and shock was clearly visible. Two candlelit vigils were held, the first in the city's George Square. Karen's parents and two of her three brothers were among those who brought candles and flowers. A second vigil was organised by the local community in Garnethill, where the Irish student had lived, to give local people a chance to remember one of their neighbours "who didn't get to come home". Karen's body was flown home to County Cork a fortnight after she went missing. The remains were accompanied on the special flight from Glasgow by her parents and brothers. Trouble followed Pacteau in the years that followed. We told in 2019 how prison chiefs moved the brute to Saughton after he had allegedly caused chaos at HMP Kilmarnock in a row over staff checking mail for drugs. Two years earlier, he had moaned to warders that other lags were urinating in his soup. And we've revealed how the murder fiend, now 31, is to stand trial accused of having a secret phone in his jail cell. Prison sources have told how he attracted the suspicion of guards after bragging about his alleged mobile to fellow inmates. It is claimed the handset was then discovered by staff in the lifer's cell at Saughton nick in Edinburgh. An insider said: 'Pacteau had a phone and was telling other lags that he had one. 'He is very quiet and doesn't speak to many folk inside. He thinks he is better than everyone else. "He thinks he is something special. But word seems to have got out then the screws got onto him and found the mobile.' The phone case against Pacteau called this week at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. He is expected to go on trial later this month.
The Sun
08-07-2025
- The Sun
Monster Alexander Pacteau faces new trial after jail claims more than 10 years on from brutal murder of Karen Buckley
MURDER fiend Alexander Pacteau is to stand trial accused of having a secret phone in his jail cell. The monster, 31, was collared a decade into his minimum 23- year sentence for killing student nurse Karen Buckley in Glasgow then trying to dissolve her body in a barrel of chemicals. 6 6 6 Prison sources have told how he attracted the suspicion of guards after bragging about his alleged mobile to fellow inmates. It is claimed the handset was then discovered by staff in the lifer's cell at Saughton nick in Edinburgh. An insider said: 'Pacteau had a phone and was telling other lags that he had one. 'He is very quiet and doesn't speak to many folk inside. He thinks he is better than everyone else. "He thinks he is something special. But word seems to have got out then the screws got onto him and found the mobile.' We told in 2019 how prison chiefs moved the brute to Saughton after he had allegedly caused chaos at HMP Kilmarnock in a row over staff checking mail for drugs. Two years earlier, he had moaned to warders that other lags were urinating in his soup. Pacteau was 21 in April 2015 when he met Karen, 24, outside the former Sanctuary nightclub in Glasgow's west end. The Irish student was on a night out with friends when the ex- private schoolboy persuaded her to go to his car. Pacteau was seen on CCTV talking to her before they drove to nearby Kelvin Way, outside Kelvingrove Park. CCTV footage of Pacteau buying corrosive liquids The motor was parked up for 12 minutes, during which time the brute had strangled her and beat her 12 or 13 times with a spanner. The sicko dumped her phone and bag in the city's Dawsholm Park then carried Karen's body into his flat in nearby Kelvindale. He then tried to dissolve her remains in a bath of caustic soda. Later, he put the body in a vat filled with chemicals and left it in a storage unit at a farm in Milngavie, five miles away. He then paid to have his car professionally cleaned in a further bid to destroy evidence. But some soil remained on the tyres, with tests proving it had been at Dawsholm Park. Pacteau was arrested after Karen's corpse was found four days later. Detectives revealed he had seemed to 'enjoy' being grilled by them over the chilling crime. The remorseless fiend eventually pled guilty to murdering Karen, who had been studying occupational therapy at the city's Caledonian Uni. Caging him at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lady Rae said: 'To you, she was a complete stranger who appears, tragically, to have accepted a lift in your car. 'In a matter of minutes, for some unknown and inexplicable reason, you destroyed her young life.' We told how Karen's dad John Buckley, then 62, from Mourneabbey, County Cork, called Pacteau a 'truly evil coward'. The phone case against Pacteau called today at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. He is expected to go on trial later this month. 6 6
Scottish Sun
28-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
English ‘Garden town by sea' with much quieter beach than nearby seaside resort
A POPULAR seaside resort dubbed 'the Garden Town by the Sea' is a great spot to go if you want to avoid the crowds this summer. St Anne's in Lancashire is known for being less busy than its neighbour Blackpool. Advertisement 5 St Anne's beach is long and features a Victorian pier Credit: Alamy 5 The pretty town centre boasts beautiful gardens and many unique shops Credit: Alamy 5 The pier dates back to 1885 Credit: Alamy It was created as a 'garden town by the sea' in the 1870s, according to St Anne's Town Council. One of the most-known spots in St Anne's is Ashton Gardens - a 10 acre park with a variety of different plants, trees and flowers. It sits in the town centre park and is not far from the seafront too. In the town centre, visitors will find many shops, with lots of unique retailers. Advertisement One of the town's loved destinations has also recently had an upgrade. The Island Cinemas were recently refurbished and now feature four comfortable cinema theatres showing the latest releases. St Anne's Pier is one of the main landmarks in the town and dates back to 1885. The pier has a number of cafes and shops and amusements, including children's rides. Advertisement Architecturally, it was built in cast iron with a wooden deck and includes shelters and pavilions in cast iron, wood and glass - a typical style of the Victorian period. Unsurprisingly, the number one thing to do in St Anne's - according to Tripadvisor - is head to the beach. The pretty UK beach named the best in the country One recent visitor said: "[W]hat a nice clean pier, [with] plenty of machines for young and old, the staff are friendly and helpful and right at the end, what lovely views [with] plenty of seating. "One of the best I've been on in a long time." Advertisement The beach features a long stretching promenade, with views across the ocean. There are a number of sand dunes and games of bowls and mini golf, too. For those wanting to enjoy the beach, they can hire a beach hut for the day. All of the beach huts have an electrical supply, with a kitchen, fresh water, crockery, and a folding table. Advertisement For little ones, there is also an outdoor water play area with water jets and fountains. 5 Upgrades to parts of the town were also recently announced Credit: Alamy In April, Fyde Council also revealed plans for two regeneration project, which focus on improving accessibility, connectivity and the visitor experience in St Anne's. The projects include a transformation of £1.5million Garden Street, to create a pedestrian link between Ashton Gardens and St Anne Square. Advertisement According to Lancashire Business View, councillor Karen Buckley, leader of Fylde Council, said: "By transforming Garden Street into an inviting gateway, we are supporting local businesses and creating spaces that encourage people to explore and enjoy everything our town has to offer." Notably, St Anne's neighbours the very famous seaside town resort of Blackpool - which is visited by millions of people each year. For a quieter alternative, that still has things to do and a stunning beach, St Anne's is a great option. Three UK beaches were also named the best in Europe by Tripadvisor this year. Advertisement Plus, the white sand beach in the UK that is so beautiful that it gets mistaken for Thailand.
